It's 7 a.m., the air is still cool, dozens of civilians are already waiting in front of the army recruitment center. The guards open the heavy doors to reveal clusters of men and women with closed faces, often mothers with their children, whom they drag by the arm. Some have their faces torn with sobs. “We call it the place of tears”whispers Yuri Nesterenko, a 49-year-old former front-line soldier, reassigned, since an injury, to this recruitment center on the outskirts of kyiv. For several months, the rate of enlistment of new soldiers has increased.
All responded to the call of their loved ones, arrested the day before by recruiting agents while they were going about their business in the city of kyiv. Behind the walls of the large complex, on Tuesday September 24, there were around a hundred waiting to see their families one last time before departure.
Among them, Oleg, 25, a double engineering graduate. The young man was arrested while on the metro. His military documents weren't updated, so the recruiters took him away. “He was happy to see us”, assures Volodymyr Valovyi, 21, who traveled with part of the family to see his cousin. “He was worried about not being able to see his loved ones before leaving”whispers the student again, warned by a text message.
The family had prepared some things for him: “Medicines, clothes, towels, underwear”lists another cousin, Nazar Zakordonets, 21 years old. “We would have liked him to have more time with the family before leaving”laments Daria, Oleg's sister, whose father has been fighting since the start of the Donbass war in 2014.
“Busification”
“It was unexpected, resumes Volodymyr, Oleg did not want to serve. » Employed in a large factory in the city, he hoped to avoid mobilization because of his crucial role in the company. “But it didn’t work…” In a few hours, Oleg will leave, with dozens of other men arrested the day before, for one of the country's training centers. These enlistments in broad daylight in the streets of towns and villages have a name in Ukraine: “busification”, a mobilization after being arrested and taken on a bus. “The State must mobilize men”whispers Volodymyr Valovyi in front of the recruitment center. “But it would be better otherwise”he adds.
This pace accelerated after the passage, experienced as very painful within society, of several packages of laws aimed at improving mobilization. In April, the legal age for being drafted was raised from 27 to 25, and men previously considered to have a “limited aptitude” to serve were called upon to return to medical commissions. In May, the country's Parliament also passed a law allowing sixty days for conscripts aged 18 to 60 to register their military documents in order to streamline procedures. Defendants risk fines of up to hundreds of euros, or having their driving license revoked. In mid-July, the Ministry of Defense announced that 4.7 million Ukrainians had updated their data.
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Source: Lemonde
